http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/05/gay-footballers-fear-reaction-of-fans

The only major player to come out was Fashanu... who committed suicide four years after he retired.

Current gay players refuse to make their sexuality public because of homophobic abuse from the 'fans'.

Britain still has a long way to go before gay sportsmen can come out .

is this some kind of world-wide action again? The very same topics suddenly appear in about any west-european main newspprs-but about football players in that country. Seem to recall that last year there was also such an outcry about this shameful (well, uh?) thing and it dies after 2-3 weeks. Probably subsidy used up.

A troll post and reply have been deleted.

Rather like racism this seems to be more a reflection of British and European football "fans" than anything else. I haven't noticed any other sport or sportsmen having similar problems in the UK for a decade or more.

Here's the choice:

A. Make the best use of your footballing talents and earn more in a year than most of us earn in a lifetime. Use the huge cash to do what you want.

B. Make the best use of your footballing talents and then declare that you're gay. Get kicked out of the team and the job that you love. See your earnings change from massive to minimum wage. Finish up cleaning toilets for a living. Become a hero to the internet warriors who have neither the talent nor the courage that you possess but who are willing to sit and whine about your lack of willingness to make sacrifices for them.

I've got to agree, sustento.

If someone feels like "coming out", for whatever reason, then they should (in an ideal world) be able to do so without risking their careers; at the same time there's no reason I can see why they should feel obliged to "make their sexuality public" any more than anyone else.

I really don't care too much about other people's sexual preferences as long as they're between consenting adults, unless they're particularly my type (and even that's academic as I'm more than happy with my Partner!), and I don't see what's wrong with a bit of privacy. The problem is that for some people their sexuality is the only thing that makes them interesting, so they seem to feel obliged to make the most of it.

I honestly don't know what the problem is. There are plenty of gay footballers at the top level.

Rio Ferdinand and Ronaldo to name a few.

And even gay referees.

I honestly don't know what the problem is. There are plenty of gay footballers at the top level. Rio Ferdinand and Ronaldo to name a few. ImageUploadedByTapatalk 21367963786.067022.jpg ImageUploadedByTapatalk 21367963796.683377.jpg And even gay referees.

Oh dear. How silly. Here are some real gay sportsmen...

And some more

And the first million pound black footballer...